Economy

• Friday, December 26th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Recession will 'set British economy back five years'

  

  Households must not rule out the prospect that the UK's economy shrinks by between 5 per cent and 10 per cent next year if the financial crisis sets off an even more vicious cycle of cutbacks, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research.

• Friday, December 26th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Jobs opportunities down, lay offs up in Chilean economy

  Despite government pleas to the contrary, some of Chile's largest industries have already begun laying off workers en masse, evidence that the global financial crisis is beginning to take serious hold here.

• Friday, December 26th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Russia devalues rouble, and prepared “to address crisis”

  Russia has devalued its currency, the rouble, for the third time this week and the seventh time this month. It takes it to its lowest value against the US dollar since January 2006.
  
  The Russian currency has been hit by the price of oil, which is Russia's main export. Oil prices are more than 100 US dollars a barrel below their July peak.

• Friday, December 26th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Christmas celebration with Emma Darwin's Recipe Book

  A cookbook based on notes by Charles Darwin's wife Emma, has been published in Britain, a fascinating testimony of Victorian times. Emma Darwin's Recipe Book features more than 40 dishes from her personal cookery notebook, which is housed in Cambridge University Library.

• Friday, December 26th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Lula da Silva signs bill creating sovereign wealth fund

  Brazilian President Lula da Silva has signed a law creating a sovereign wealth fund to protect the country from the global financial crisis and help Brazilian companies boost trade and expand overseas.

• Friday, December 26th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Lan reduces air fuel surcharge and slashes fares

  

  Chile's leading airline Lan and Sky Airlines have virtually eliminated the fuel surcharge in all domestic flights and slashed fares, in line with the falling prices of fuel, reports the Financial and Business section of Santiago's main daily El Mercurio.

• Friday, December 26th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  FIG: Falklands-UK airbridge fares “unaffordable”

  

  The fare structure of the air bridge linking the Falkland Islands with Britain will not be reconsidered according to British officials. Falkland Islands Government (FIG) considers the price of seats as “unaffordable”.

• Friday, December 26th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Industrial production in Japan drops record 8% in November

  Official figures have revealed that Japanese manufacturing has dropped at its fastest rate on record, with companies closing factories and cutting jobs. Industrial output in Japan plummeted by a record 8% in November compared with the previous month.

• Thursday, December 25th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Economic woes and insecurity underlined in Queen's message

  

  Britain's economic problems and the “insecurity” people are feeling in today's uncertain times were acknowledged by the Queen in her Christmas Day message.

• Thursday, December 25th 2008 - 20:00 UTC

  Wiesel foundation looses all assets to Madoff's Ponzi fraud

  

  The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity lost more than 15 million US dollars, nearly all of its assets, in the fraud scheme run by Wall Street financer Bernard Madoff, the fund said Wednesday in a short release.